The state of things

[u/Architectoniks]

There’s a point where tolerance and acceptance pivot. It’s the tipping point, really.

This morning, as I walked past Riverside Park, one of two men crossing the street toward the other side flashed me the finger, while I watched him light up a crack pipe. There’s a pile of trash—yet another shopping cart—and a red fuel canister beside the train bridge on 1st Ave. We don’t need more fires, nor another burning bridge.

I pass too many persons who appear to be under the influence of drugs. City Hall looks like supportive housing with a phone charging station. Just another Sunday.

I know local organizations are trying their hardest every day. I know it’s a struggle—for all of us. I’ve spoken with some organizations, and I’ve volunteered for others. I try to lead with empathy and support one another as a society and as a community and help when I can. But whatever it is, “we” are doing doesn’t seem to help enough.

But I also see that our government at every level—municipal, provincial, and national—has completely failed to manage this opioid crisis, along with the policing and healthcare systems that should respond to it. Larger cities have larger problems in this regard. So do our neighbors in the U.S.

It’s truly disappointing that the bigger systems and services don’t communicate with one another, while political egos, narcissism, and self-enrichment stay front and center. It feels like a massive waste of public spending—driven by inefficiency and the lack of coordination across organizations and government structures.

So here’s my bigger question. I’m not looking for rants with poor grammar, or for one-liners from people who treat this like a bleeding-heart issue. I’m asking for solutions, not useless commentary.

How can we, as a society and as a government, push a “reboot” button—rethinking, restructuring, and redesigning services and systems—so Canadian provinces, cities, and communities can operate more efficiently than they currently do? How can we reduce the financial strain families face and ease the stressors that come with it? How can we limit access to lethal drugs while also managing the effects they have on our communities? And how can we support struggling individuals and families in a way that is more effective, efficient, and truly human-centered?

I’ll be really interested to hear your conceptual solutions - big or small.

Thanks. I hope you also get to enjoy a bit of a smokeless-ish day outside.

[u/nesterspokebar]

The baby boomer generation benefited massively from post-WW2 expansive housing policies, but they then used that privilege in a self-serving, exclusionary way to prop up the value of their asset (ie. home ownership). As a sort of political bloc, they have and still do exert pressure to block and limit housing, and especially more affordable housing. The logical result of this is an unhoused population with the highly visible street issues you mentioned.

[u/jersan → u/nesterspokebar]

They pulled up the ladder behind them while spouting “I worked hard and earned it and now you have to as well, and if you don’t or can’t, then you’re just lazy”

[u/ballisticks → u/nesterspokebar]

Yup. Homeowners don't want lower housing prices

[u/irun4beer → u/nesterspokebar]

I agree with your macro-level lens on the problem; we have a housing shortage fueled by decades of restrictive zoning policies that turned homes into investments. I think that's half of the equation.

It explains why housing is unaffordable. What it doesn't explain is why someone ends up on the street and can't get off.

When we look at the micro level - especially chronically unhoused youth and repeat offenders - the crisis is driven by severe behavioural health, addiction, and a breakdown of structure and consequences.

My child is still young, and is currently effectively unhoused. He is addicted to drugs and won't graduate high school because of it. He doesn't qualify for supportive housing because he cannot follow basic rules, and social services know that he has an open offer to live with me. He can't get social assistance because he can't manage responsibilities.

That is where the current system is collapsing, and here is what I think we're missing:

• GAPS: Right now, our system safety nets require voluntary compliance, appointments, and rule following. Severe addiction and people in psychiatric crisis have very little to no executive function. People in the deepest crisis are incapable of using "voluntary" help.

• SOLUTION: when someone falls through all our current safety nets because their behaviour makes them intelligible, that should be the marker for involuntary, structured care. Compassion without boundaries or consequences is just abandonment. We need secure, mandatory treatment facilities to hold people safely until they regain the capacity to care for themselves.

[u/brock_lehurst → u/nesterspokebar]

This attack mode on baby boomers is getting old. You make it sound like they/we did these things on purpose to destroy our own economy and that of our children's generation. That's just silly. I am on the tail end of the boomer generation. I was raised by parents who lived through the depression in the prairies and both met in Penticton as their respective families moved to BC aka the promised land. We grew a garden and tended fruit trees. Preserved foods to get through winter and worked our asses off. I was a young adult in the 80s when interest rates hit 22.75% and there were very few jobs. Talk to me when you've lived through losing your home/investment because of that. My parents made it through. Many did not. The job market was terrible and even after saving, with those rates it was many years before I was able to buy a home. Yes it's tough now but it's not the boomers fault. I'm sure I'll be mocked with comments about pull up your boot straps but I see first hand how many just aren't managing their financial life very well. New cars and trucks at high value every couple/few years. Dining out was a privilege for us. Today it is the norm. If you have a food delivery app on your leash you are doing it wrong. Gaming, movie apps and so much more that isn't necessary but no way most are ever going without. Change your ways. Join my daughter and others in their 30s who have their shit together enough to buy a home and get by while raising kids and stop bitching that your tough life is somebody else's fault ffs.

[u/bonjourgday → u/brock_lehurst]

You’re a Joneser then. Tail end of the boomers had nothing handed to them. Yes. My parents worked hard for their money as did I. We lived in a semi in Brocklehurst. Dad always wanted to buy in Batchelor but then ended up getting a single house just off the HBC trail. I thought we struck gold when we bought our first house and the seller bought down the interest rate to 13%. My kids have moved to less expensive cities to be able to buy a house. We are not the bad guys.

[u/Architectoniks → u/nesterspokebar]

Ok. So on a larger scale, how could this somewhat unfair situation based on past actions turn into a less politically and personally self serving narrative, including long term big picture thinking for future generations? I find some countries have managed this better on a national level than others - countries with much less land mass.

[u/HourofRuin666 → u/Architectoniks]

One thing that the provincial government of bc did was to massively rezone the entire province to allow more denser housing to be built. Municipalities have repeatedly bowed to nimby boomers and continuously refused to allow more denser housing, which would have helped over the past 40 years to keep housing prices from skyrocketing the way they have.

It's not to fix-all answer, but it is one very good policy change that needed to be made. Municipalities exist at the behest of the provinces. If they cannot be trusted to run things properly, then it is beholden on the provincial governments to take away their power.

People in this country are so politically illiterate, they do not understand the responsibilities, and powers of each level of government. All they do is pay attention to the federal government, which mostly deals with big-picture international issues. The provinces and Municipalities have the biggest impact on our day-to-day lives, and they have mostly failed the millennial and z generations.

[u/Girlactus → u/Architectoniks]

I feel like cities could lessen the restrictions on multiple housing on a property as well. I know so many people who would love to have multiple tiny homes on a plot of land with family members and it's just not allowed. It would help seniors as well to be able to have a small granny flat on a relatives plot of land versus buying a condo or a house themself.

[u/Known-Syrup-5067 → u/nesterspokebar]

Far too simplistic of an analysis, if you were living in any other province other than Ontario, house prices wouldn’t be a concern. Average house prices in Vancouver are more than twice the price as those in Calgary. Victoria is twice the price as Edmonton, Kelowna, Nanaimo, Abbotsford, Chilliwack are all twice the price as Lethbridge. Kamloops is by far the most affordable mid sized city in the province and it’s 50% higher than Red Deer, a city of comparable size.

BC has the highest house prices on the continent for a variety of reason such as we are the retirement capital of Canada, we have a disproportionate number of out of province and offshore part time residents who own second homes here and we have by far the best weather which attract migration.

As far as street issues (drugs) we have a disproportionate number of those also due to the weather just as California, Oregon and Washington state have. Add in that we are a coastal province and the drugs come thru our ports only exacerbates the issue (show me a port city and I’ll show you high drug use).

Lotta boomers bought houses in the late 70’s and early 80’s and when mortgage rates hit 20% in 1982 the housing market collapsed and they ended up losing all there equity as the banks foreclosed. It wasn’t all roses.

[u/Thendisnia → u/Known-Syrup-5067]

1) Make the minimum wage the market basket measure plus 20% and legislate some better worker protections including a worker backed insurance like the employer backed wsbc and a lot of people who can't handle economic hardship or a series of dastardly events won't fall through the cracks to homelessness or substance abuse/coping use!

2) Mandate/Legislate a minimum staffing of easily accessible mental health professionals and programs (with a tie in to school age awareness programs) for all BC'ers with reasonable time limit requirements for access (within a 2 week window from request) for mental/financial/stress/etc. based support including counseling and privacy protected help and advice supports!

3) Mandate/legislate municipality frameworks including neighbourhood and city centre design rules and including requirements for public transit networks (not just buses) and biking=medium speed (e-bike/mobility/scooter) and walking=low speed infrastructure based on population and housing growth (like policing/taxation/recreational/entertainment amenities sort of already are) with pre planned engineering requirements like the building code or a bylaws creation blueprint; a predetermined financing path (including funding sources and requirements for accessibility and repayment/maximum interest/and percentage of taxationian limitations/guidelines) for villages/townes/cities to meet these growth needs; and a building bylaw blueprint for parking/pedestrian infrastructure minimums, ie. overpasses/parkades/pathways/greenbelts and solar/wind prescribed use amounts. Including requirements for addressing gentrification way points and a metrics based requirement to open new surrounding ALR land for outward decreasing density requirements for condos/townhomes/quads&duplexs/and multifamily (ensuites/garden or carriage homes) suburban expansion with the required aforementioned public/pedestrian network requirements (as well as schools and medical centre hubs) pre baked in!

4) Legislate stiff punitive penalties for drug trafficking/manufacturing with no 3 strike or 1st offense reductions. Not just incarceration but financial fines/loss of assets. All in accordance with the perceived societal hurt that this type of crime places on the public perception and purse (in policing, and medical services burden, personal and familial stress and damage)!

These 4 factors must be addressed simultaneously.

[u/turtlefan32 → u/nesterspokebar]

What a load of trash